I know! You guys are all going to go into shock – what with two posts in a week!

I hope you get why I wasn’t posting though… This whole pregnant thing. Well. Let’s just say it hasn’t gotten easier. I’m sicker, longer-every time, I swear. Third trimester has me all happy and shouting for joy that I feel normal again! (Other than the growth of my body in certain areas.) Finally though, I have some motivation and focus back. Feels great.

So! We’re back in ice cream mode. Kind of.

We want to be anyhow. The weather here teases us with a day of warmth and sunshine, only to get cold and damp for a week or two following.

Ice cream is good, no matter what the weather though. Especially if you can make it yourself, without a machine, and put the desired amount of cookie dough in it (ie – more cookie dough than ice cream?).

Anybody else indulge in ice cream as a midnight snack, perhaps a bit too frequently? Or is it just me, and my pregnant self? I must say, cookie dough is probably my go-to. If I don’t know what kind to pick (I’m a terrible decider-of-things at times), I fall back on good ole chocolate chip cookie dough. Yum.

Anyhow. We’ve made this quite a few times, and normally, I don’t put the whole batch of dough in the ice cream. This time, we put it allll in. And there was bascially as much dough as ice cream. Which, to me, sounds like a pretty good deal. Hubby thought maybe I had gone a little crazy (a little MORE crazy, most likely). But it’s up to you. If you have dough left over, freeze it – use it in your next batch. There’s totally enough for two batches if you are a sane ice cream + cookie dough eater. I like the 1:1 ratio though. It’s kind of like my 1:1 ratio for cake to icing. It’s gotta be even. Some of each in every bit. Y’get my drift?

Beat margarine and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla.

Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt and mix on low-speed (or stir by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Pop in the freezer for 10-15 minutes for easier handling.**

Roll into 1/2" balls, or preffered size for in your ice cream.

Ice Cream

In a large bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Fold in sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla.

Fold in cookie dough, and pour into a 9x9 or loaf pan.

Cover and freeze, for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Notes

I used a chocolate bar with caramel pieces (chopped up) for the pictures in this recipe. I've made it with chocolate chips too, though. I'd say use whatever yummy kind of chocolate you can get your hands on!

**If you run out of time, you don't have to pop it in the freezer, it just might be a little harder to make into little balls.

(PS – There’s a slight overload of pictures here. Between Jordan and I, we took a zillion…)

So, if you tried my last ice cream recipe (which was also NO-CHURN/NO-MACHINE, and also GINGER), then you’ve discovered that ice cream made at home with no machine (and all the love) is absolutely, positively the best thing. EVER. At least, when it comes to cold, creamy, yummy things.

It’s SO creamy!

Wait, did I mention that it’s super creamy? Because it is. And it is the easiest thing to make. This recipe is going to be a two-part one, because there is super smooth, zingy, floral, and sweet Blueberry Lavender Curd swirled in. So we’ll start off with the curd, and move on to the really easy ice cream part.

The curd is actually pretty dang easy. I was inspired by Joy the Baker (who isn’t?), who made Lemon Poppy Seed Crepes with Blueberry Curd last week. How freaking creative can you get? I thought I’d continue in that trend, and add some lavender. Lavender adds a whole new dimension to it. When it gets mixed into the ice cream – WOWZERS! It is pretty darn great. I know some people will kick this lavender thing before they even try it. And that’s alright. Blueberry curd ice cream is great too, I’m sure. But you should really try it before you say, “Eww, gross! Flowers in my ice cream?!” Because that’s just wrong. Try new things. It’s fun.

On to the ice cream! It’s the same base as our ginger ice cream, so we basically whip it up the same way, but swirl in some curd. After it’s done freezing… if you can restrain yourself from just eating the softer-whipped cream-before-it’s-frozen-wow-I-couldn’t-stop-eating-it, then you can gush about how awesome it is. Eat it on blueberry pie. Or by itself. In a cone. I would I could in a cone. I would I could in a dish. I would I could spend way too much time reading Dr. Seuss(?!).

So. I really hope you try this out. The curd makes about 2.5-3 cups, so you’ll have some leftover. Eat it on your pancakes! Or make some scones. Add whipped cream. Heck, add this ice cream to your curd and pancakes, AND whipped cream. This is sounding like a decadent weekend brunch. Let’s do it. Anyone? Who’s up for pancakes with curd, ice cream, and whipped cream? This weekend coming?

I really hope you all enjoy!

No-Churn Blueberry Lavender Curd Ice Cream

2016-09-17 19:25:49

Who needs an ice cream machine? All we need are a handful of ingredients, and a mix-in, and we're good to go! Blueberry Lavender curd with creamy ice cream all the way!

Definitely make the curd ahead of time. (Think - the night before you're hoping to make ice cream) In a small pot, stir together the blueberries and lemon juice, cover, and place over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes. It should be bubbling. Pour the blueberries through a strainer, and squish them with a spoon. Get as much juice out of them as you can. Pour the puree back into the pot and let cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and egg. Slowly add in sugar and whisk until combined. Add this to the blueberries in the pot, and continue whisking for about 1 minutes, until creamy. Place over medium heat again, whisking constantly, until the curd gets thick and can coat the back of a wooden spoon. This should take around 10 minutes. Take the pot from off of the heat, and whisk in the butter, two cubes at a time. Add lavender, and let sit for about ten minutes.

Give a stir, strain into jars, and cover. Refrigerate for at least one hour (I found mine set to a good ice cream swirling thickness after 2-3 hours).

For the Ice Cream

In a large bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Fold in sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla.

Pour into a 9x9 or loaf pan. Dollop your blueberry curd (I used about 1 cup of the curd), and swirl well with a butter-knife.

Cover and freeze, for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

ENJOY!

Notes

**You can see stiff peaks of whipped cream in the first photo

**Note the swirling job in the second photo

**The curd recipe makes about 2.5 cups. Keep the extra in the fridge and do exciting things with it! (It's great on blueberry scones!)

I know I sound like a broken record – but I’m honestly amazed that I’ve been posting consistently! We are on week 6 of these lists; AND THEY’RE CONSECUTIVE WEEKS! Like, what in the world is going on? Pretty great, from my point of view.

This week, like every other for the past few months, has been pretty busy. I’m just trying to keep up. We’ve had dentist appointments, turned extractions. We’ve had dinners and desserts with friends & family. We started school. (Welcome to the rest of our lives!) Anyhow. I knew September would be busy, but the naive part of me thought it might slow down a touch. That naive part is generally wrong. W. R. O. N. G.

As much as it’s crazy, I’m loving the continuation of some summer heat, and spending time in the outdoors.

On to the list!

We be laughing, stylin’, slowly reintroducing Fall to my vocabulary, and [trying to] think in this week of lists.

(Also. Next post = Either cakes or ice cream. Just to get you excited and all.)

This post my hubby found on 9gag HAD ME IN TEARS LAUGHING. It was an I-can’t breathe-I’m-laughing-so-hard kind of laugh. If you’re not a mom, you might not think it’s funny. But truth is, I can relate to most of these posts. They are hilarious. (I’m laughing just thinking about it…)

I’m just not going to let it die with these tunics. Elbow patches all the way! Here, and here.

I absolutely adore calligraphy, pens, and writing styles. There are so many cool things you can do/everyone has such beautiful handwriting! Shutterbean – her writing is immaculate. Not to mention this Huffpost article on penmanship – so many pretty styles.

I’ve started homeschooling this week, and we’ve just begun to read Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. I’m really enjoying how it’s written. I’ve never read it before. I’m hoping the kiddos are enjoying as much as I am. I’d highly suggest reading it!

Well, first I must ask, do you like ginger? Because if you don’t, you won’t like this. However, if you do – this is going to be your go-to ice cream.

First off – no ice cream machine = no problemo. I do not have counter (or cupboard) space for an ice cream machine at this point, as awesome as they are. In comes no-machine or no-churn ice cream, and we have zero problem! It freezes up like a dream! Scoops like store-bought ice cream. It’s wayy creamier than most store bought ice creams (because it’s made with actual whipping cream – lots of it!). It’s not the same as store-bought. But that’s okay. It might be better-er. Especially when you throw in some ginger. Wow.

Has anyone ever had ice cream that is spicy? This is it. You have cold (the ice part), creamy (that’d be the cream – duh), sweet and spicy (the sweetened condensed milk and ginger, respectively)! It’s a party on your taste buds.

There is a local ice cream shop around here that makes homemade ginger ice cream. That’s where this idea was born. Can I have ginger ice cream at home!? With only FIVE ingredients?! Sure thang.

It’s super easy. And there are so many options, if you really don’t like ginger. We’ve made cookie dough, vanilla, and vanilla with chocolate shavings. (Cookie dough is also amazing, because you can put ALL the dough in there. Basically cookie dough, with a bit of ice cream.) I’m thinking bubble gum for the kiddos next.

No-Machine Ginger Ice Cream

2016-08-09 19:30:34

Yields 9

Spicy ice cream without a machine! So much flavour, so few ingredients, so little time involved in the making!

It will be fun, you see, because it was a fun baking experience – because I got to bake with three precious little girls.

Now you see, if you knew me in my kitchen (ask my hubby for verification!), you would never think that I would be able to handle this. When I bake, I’m flying. Well actually, when I live (which is well, always) I fly. For some reason, it’s a go, goooo, GO for me all the time. I can be seen literally running through the house at times if nobody is around, and perhaps at times when people are present. SO – baking with others is normally a task for me. I just don’t have time! Well, I just don’t take the time… But this day, I did. And I’m so glad for it. It was a great time with these three, and they even said that they had fun! I was super happy about that.

This recipe is super easy. It was one that my grandmother would set me to making, because it has few ingredients and it’s pretty hard to mess up (which I HAVE done, but they taste good no matter what anyhow). For these, I always use a wooden spoon. Also because of Nannie. She liked using wooden spoons for quite a few things, and it stuck. These squares are so easy to stir by hand that it’s really and truly a waste of time to get a mixer out and messed up.

We also made homemade old-fashioned strawberry ice cream later on that day. With a crank outside in the snow. It’s really quite cool. It takes awhile, but it’s most definitely worth it. (But it’s not low-calorie by ANY means! Haha.)

It.

Is.

SO.

GOOD!

So, that was my really great day with these three great little ladies. Hope you enjoy the squares.